‘Y&R’ Star Peter Bergman Explains Surprise ‘Pluribus’ Role, Bryan Cranston Connection

Soap fans can now catch The Young and the Restless‘ Peter Bergman (Jack Abbott) in an entirely new setting. The three-time Daytime Emmy winner is part of the ensemble cast of Pluribus, a new series that dropped today on Apple TV+.

As it turns out, Bergman didn’t have to audition. The opportunity came his way directly from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan, whose path crossed Bergman’s years ago through Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston.

“Bryan and I met each other on a softball field in Central Park when I was on All My Children (as Cliff Warner) and he was on Loving (as Douglas Donovan), and we have been friends since,” Bergman shares. “His wife, Robin, and my wife, Mariellen, are very dear friends, and we vacation together.”

Their connection has spanned the highs and lows of both men’s professional journeys. “We’ve been with Bryan’s career when he could not get work,” Bergman recalls. “In those years, I went to see Bryan in plays that he and friends put together, and I’d come home and I’d tell Mariellen, ‘He’s a very good actor. He was really good in this thing.’ So, when Malcolm in the Middle happened, I thought, ‘Oh, fantastic. Couldn’t happen to a better guy.’”

When Bergman heard about Cranston’s next project, however, he was skeptical. “I was at an Oscar party when Bill Timoney (Alfred Vanderpool, AMC) said to me, ‘Hey, Bryan just did this thing where basically he’s a science teacher who, with one of his reprobate students, starts cooking up meth’. And I thought, ‘That is the worst idea I’ve ever heard. How is that ever going to be a show?’ So, to see this giant snowball of success that just hasn’t stopped for him is amazing.”

Through Cranston, Bergman met Gilligan, sparking another lasting friendship. “Vince and his wife Holly are just the loveliest people in the world,” reports Bergman. “We’ve had them in our home, and we’ve done lots of things with Vince and Holly. So, Vince texted me and said, ‘Hey, I have this thing coming up that I think you’d be perfect for.’ I said, ‘As long as it fits into my Y&R schedule, I’d love that.’”

Bergman received the script and quickly realized how tightly the project was being kept under wraps. “I had to sign an NDA, and it was a watermarked script and very secretive,” he says. “They changed all the names, and in the short time between him first talking about it and my shooting it back in January, I think it had three names and none of them were Pluribus.”

Though he can’t reveal much about his Pluribus role, Bergman hints it’s both challenging and memorable, “When I got the script, the character’s name was Distinguished Gentleman, and I thought, ‘Well, Vince, clearly thinks I’m a distinguished fellow,’” he says with a laugh. “And then I read my dialogue, and I realized, ‘He knows I’ve done a soap, and I can learn copious amounts of complicated dialogue.’ So, I’m in the last seven minutes of the first episode, and I haven’t seen it, so who knows how much of it will make it in, but when you watch it, you’ll understand why we could only shoot it from beginning to end every single time. Once they said, ‘Action,’ I was talking for almost seven pages.”

Filming Pluribus gave Bergman a firsthand look at Gilligan’s creative world. “The fun for me is we were around for all the Breaking Bad years, and I actually got to see the Vince Gilligan factory, what they’d set up in Albuquerque,” he explains. “It was the same people as Breaking Bad, the same people as Better Call Saul, so I met all these people that Bryan used to talk about. An impressive part of it was so many of the departments were headed by women. It was remarkable. And, obviously, they have better food than we have at Television City (where Y&R films).”

Another highlight was working with Better Call Saul alum Rhea Seehorn, who plays Carol. “She is a lovely human being, a thoughtful, compassionate actress who would find me to run lines,” Bergman notes. “She had three-word sentences of dialogue, and she would just come and listen to me blather on very patiently and rehearse the scene with me again and again. She’s totally committed to every moment she’s on camera.”

As the show’s release approached, Bergman found himself caught up in the excitement. “The great fun of it has been the last three weeks,” he relays. “The first teaser that they sent out, you would swear I was a costar on this show. They use so much of what I did for the first teaser — it’s me and Rhea Seehorn, and that’s it. Then I’m driving up Vine in the heart of Hollywood, and there are two big posters. One is with Rhea Seehorn kind of screaming at the sky, and another one is a little further down, and just over it is the Hollywood sign, and in giant bold, black letters on yellow, it says, ‘We’re sorry we upset you, Carol,’ which is one of the lines in their teaser. It’s just funny to see my dialogue in giant bold letters on a big billboard.”

Sonja Flemming/CBS

His Y&R costars have been just as enthusiastic about his new project. “It’s remarkable how everyone at work is now aware of Pluribus,” he muses. “Everyone seems to watch something on Apple TV+.”

The show’s debut also comes at a milestone moment: This month marks 36 years since Bergman first stepped into the role of Jack Abbott following his successful run as All My Children‘s Cliff. “It’s just great, and it’s crazy to me,” he marvels. “Both of these daytime jobs were something I was convinced I could make last for six months, and what it’s turned into is really something. And the other thing that’s almost alarming is that at the age I am, I didn’t think they were going to fire me necessarily, but I thought I’d be put out to pasture and show up to do the toast at the Abbott Thanksgiving dinner and at weddings and things like that. But I work as much as I did when I was 40. It’s going to be hard for you to find a more grateful actor out there.”

Pluribus, Series Premiere, Friday, November 7, Apple TV+